Hi there again Blog Reader! Today I'm trying my hand at entering a writing competition. You may recall from "The Bear Room" I like to write for contests which I invariably never end up entering. Well, this time I have written the below short story for the Creative Writing Ink's writing prompt competition. The site can be found at this link, and the picture they have selected as the prompt is below. Wish me luck. The Queens BirthdayJola smiled at her twin brother Haram when he said they should go into the city to see the birthday procession. From being young, the royal family had fascinated them both; everything from the majesty of their carriages to the crowns they wore, covering their heads whenever they were in public.
“Mother will be angry if we leave the farm unattended while they are at the market,” she said, hoping Haram would come up with one of his brilliant plans and convince her to go. As the older twin, by roughly three minutes, she took it upon herself to be the sensible one of the pair. “But sister, it is not only the Queen’s birthday today but ours too; we can count it as our present to each other, and to her. Besides, we will be back before our parents, I only want to see the parade, and it only happens every ten years. Please don’t make me miss it.” The look in his eyes melted her heart, but she was confident he would find a way to sneak off if she did not go with him, and heaven knows what kind of trouble he would get up to on his own. “Fine, we will go and see it. But we must be back before mother and father, or we will both be in trouble.” They made themselves busy with the few farm errands too essential to put off until later and set off for the city. It was only an hour’s walk, faster if you had a cart or horse, but those were with their parents at the market on the other side of the city. The city itself sat in the centre of a large natural dome, hidden from view until you came over the crest of the rise and looked down at its fabulous splendour. They said the walls were over a hundred feet tall and no army had ever managed to breach them. It had been generations since the last war when the current queen assumed power in their lands. Old men and women sometimes recited the stories their grandparents had told them as children, although Jola didn’t believe half of them. The gate fee was usually a single Toc unless you were selling goods at the market, in which case the crown imposed a levy on each item sold, depending on its value. Their family didn’t pay it; local farmers with food for sale didn’t need to, but there was a limit on the price they could charge for their goods. Today, however, in honour of the celebrations, there would be no fees, and they walked through the south gate and past the large guards, dressed in their finest gold armour, without them even stirring. Once inside, they could see the decorations adorning the building; flags and banners seemed to be hung from every available pole and window, and many of the citizens were dressed in finery the likes Jola had never seen before. Everyone she saw was smiling and enjoying the festivities of the day. Haram’s smile generally made her happy but seeing him beam at the sights, sounds and smells of today elated her. Jola was sure if his smile were much bigger; the top of his head may come off. They walked past the hundreds of people making their way to the parade route and intrepid stallholders attempting to sell their wares to the masses. She watched as a man bought a small flag from one of the vendors and passed it up to his son, sat on his shoulders. She turned to point it out to Haram, but he had disappeared into the crowd. Good, she thought, it would give her time to run a quick errand. Ducking through the crowd, she found what she was looking for; on one of the stalls they had walked past, was a single red hat her brother would love. Keeping an eye out for him, she purchased it with the few coins she had managed to save and walked back to the spot where she last saw him. Jola waited a few minutes for him to return, scanning the crowd and smiling while keeping the present behind her back to keep the surprise. A few more minutes passed, and she started to panic, but then caught sight of him walking towards her. “Happy birthday Sister,” he said, producing a sugared sweet bun from behind his back. “Happy birthday Brother” she replied proffering her gift. His face lit up even more at the sight of the hat, and he immediately placed it on his head at a roguish angle. It suited him even more than she hoped. The sweet bun was delicious. She offered Haram a bite, but he had never been interested in sweet food, besides, he seemed a little preoccupied. “Follow me,” he said grabbing her hand once she had licked the last of the sugar from her lips. They ducked and weaved through the crowd of merry parade goers until they came up to the back of the palace. It was a grand building, marble towers and high glass windows surrounded by its tall wall. The parade was set to start from there, circle the city and then return later, all with the royal family, headed by the Queen, waving and throwing gifts to the crowd. “There is a walled garden down this alleyway where you can see into the palace.” He said as they ducked between two buildings. “Keep a lookout while I go up and have a look. Then I will keep a lookout for you go.” Jola opened her mouth to object, but he was already a couple of steps up the wall. She wasn’t surprised; climbing trees was one of her brother's favourite pastimes. “I can see her. She’s not even wearing the crown! I bet I’m the first person to.” Haram had gone quiet. Jola assumed he was awestruck by the realisation he would be the only person to have seen the face of a member of the royal family in generations. Feeling the excitement build within her Jola decided to abandon her post and started to climb the thick vines coating the wall to see the view for herself, but the quiet conversation of two people walking towards them made her stop. They were probably guardsmen this close to the palace. “Haram! Get down!” she shouted as her brother refused to move. His eyes were transfixed on something over the wall. She climbed a few steps and pulled at his ankle. It was strangely cold and shocked her to the touch. Her foot slipped from the tangle of the vines, and she fell from the wall, landing hard on her feet and wincing at the pain shooting up her leg from her ankle. She sighed in relief as Haram started to move, but the breath caught in her throat as she realised he was falling backwards. She tried to dash forwards to catch him, but a sharp pain in her ankle slowed her movement. She watched as he hit the ground and fractured into hundreds of pieces. A piercing shriek came from deep within her soul as she watched in agonising disbelief at the crumbling shards of stone which had once been her brother, further crumbled to sand and then finally to dust which stirred in the light breeze. She backed up against the wall in horror and began to sob as the joyous red hat floated to the ground in front of her. She started crying uncontrollably until the guards she had heard before came upon her and dragged her away from the few remaining motes.
0 Comments
Hi there, Blog Reader. First, I have to explain my scoring system for rating films. I will give them a rating out of 100 with 30 points available for the story, 30 for music, 30 for how the film captivates me (acting, pacing, set pieces, etc.) and the last 10 will be my rating of how likely I am to recommend it to a friend. OK, so now for the reasons:- 1 – Not just for musical fans First of all, I have to say; if you are not a fan of musicals then this might still be for you, so don’t write it off just yet. My wife suggested going to the cinema to see this one Saturday afternoon, and I wasn’t overly convinced. Now don’t get me wrong – I count Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserable amongst my favourite films, but having watched Logan the previous night, the idea of seeing Hugh Jackman go from the gruff near-immortal Wolverine to the kind, gentle and bright-eyed PT Barnum seemed almost too much of a juxtaposition. Suffice to say; I was not disappointed. Barely a minute into the film the idea of Hugh being Logan had been wholly washed from my mind to the point where I could have said different actors were playing them. 2 – The story is uplifting and upsetting in equal measure It follows PT Barnum and the creation of the first circus while aptly showing the effect it has on multiple groups, from the performers to his family to society in general. There are many themes at play within the film, but I would like to say the prevalent one is overcoming adversity. It is full of examples of discrimination through class, race and physical appearance and strives to show the characters overcoming these, through a mix of changing the status quo for the better and accepting themselves for who they are rather than who society wants them to be. 3 – The score will blow you away There are some powerful voices in the score, with the bearded lady (Keala Settle) bringing the house down with her astounding vocal range sending sparks of electricity down your spine as she pours everything into each song, not to mention the exceptional abilities of Hugh Jackman, Anne Wheeler and Zac Efron. I found the film to have a great mix of song and story without either tripping over each other. Sometimes musicals have a habit of singing conversations which would have been better just spoken instead. To my memory, there is only one song in the film that is an actual sang conversation between the characters and is a scene in the bar. I won’t spoil it but the mix of song, acting and movement (not to mention the humour from both characters and the barman) were a wonder to see, and still has my number one spot for best scene in the movie. We enjoyed the film so much we had to stop off and buy the soundtrack on the way home, and I have to say I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to it since. It is uplifting and powerful. If you are feeling down or self-conscious at all, it has an impressive ability to give you a boost when you most need it. 4 – It is an all round feel good film There are many scenes in this film I could comfortably name as my favourite, from the new love to the old, from the eagerness to make something of yourself to the setbacks and heartache, this film does not disappoint. We were utterly captivated from the very first chords of the first song to the start of the ending credits, entirely moved by the story, happy with the various character arcs and not left wanting. As the scores will reflect below, we came out of the film filled with the wow feeling of seeing an excellent movie and the experience will stay with us forever. 5 – Total recommendation I would happily and wholeheartedly recommend this film to friends, my dear readers of this blog, casual acquaintances, and random people in the street - in fact, anyone who will listen. As I mentioned above, the soundtrack has an uplifting quality, and I have used this to cheer me up and encourage me after a hard day at work.
My score for this film is - Story - 30/30 Music - 30/30 Captivation - 30/30 Recommendation - 10/10 Total Score - 100/100 I look forward to picking up the book “The Life Of PT Barnum” and adding it to my bookshelves, and this is a must-buy when the DVD comes out. I hope you take my recommendation and feel the same. See you again soon Blog Reader! Greetings Blog Reader. In this post, I will be talking about the mental impact of writing a novel. Let’s be frank. Writing is both very easy and very hard, depending on the day. Some days the words flow out of you and onto the page like a river forms a waterfall. Other days it will be so difficult to put a single word on the page it is as if the words had dried up completely. I have come across a few different techniques I can share with you which you can use to make it easier to cope with the writing process if not actually help with the writing itself. Word Count Goals I find word count goals are useful only when the words are flowing, and just because an achieved goal is a big boost to your confidence. A confident writer finds it easier to put words on a page, is more relaxed and can focus better on plot and vocabulary. On the other hand, and in my personal experience, word count goals only serve to create anxiety. If you are lucky enough to be able to write all day and have no other responsibilities, you will find it much easier to get down those precious words. If you have a life which continually gets in the way of your creativity, then a goal is tough to maintain. If you spend a great deal of time thinking any of the below list, then a word count goal is not helping you:- I must get 1000 words today, if not I will fail. I’ve only managed 876 today, so I have failed I haven’t been able to write today, so I missed my goal, and I have failed Just writing the above list makes me anxious - Imagine living through them. I find anxiety makes it harder to write, not easier. Now, how about setting a goal to write every day, no numbers just write. Give yourself a day off occasionally. Trust me – it will do wonders for your writing process. I read something on twitter recently that stays with me:- Imagine a well. The water in the bottom is your ability or desire to write, and the bucket is you transferring it to the page. The more time you spend pulling buckets out of the well will eventually drain it. A day off allows your well to refill. So which is better for your confidence, and your writing? Setting a goal to write six days a week and putting maybe 100-500 words down for four of them and then possibly even smashing out 2-3000 on the fifth or setting a 4000 word a week goal and being so anxious about meeting this goal it stifles your creativity, and you only manage 3500 words? Which one allows you to enjoy your writing and which makes it a chore Deadlines Do you have a publisher? A literary agent? Are they imposing a deadline on you? OK - Get those words on the page and meet your deadline! Are you indie? Are you self-publishing? Why are setting yourself a hard deadline? I understand the desire to finish a book, but put it this way – when you walk into your local bookstore and peruse the shelves, eventually finding something you want to take to the tills, do you then immediately set yourself the goal to read it all by the end of the day? (I’m talking about a hard goal here not a desire to read it) Or do you take your time, enjoy it and read the book in as much time as it takes you? Would you write your next book and put a message on the first few pages to tell the reader they must read the book in 24 hours? Take your time with your writing and have an idea of when it might be finished but don’t hold yourself to it. Again, a missed deadline is as good at anxiety building as a missed word count goal. Community There is a massive writing community out there, and you need to become part of it. Writing and reading might be solitary tasks, but this doesn’t mean you have to be alone while you are doing it. Even if you only look at social media, so many people out there are going through the same as you and are at varying stages in the writing process that even just reading about their day to day struggles can boost your confidence. Also, sometimes it’s nice to help someone who is a little further behind in the process than you, or even to be supported by someone a bit further along, even if this help only involves reading a tweet about writing. Why not find a local writing group or book club if you are more of a social person. Other Sources The stories that live inside us have to come from somewhere. I believe it’s a mixture of everything we have been exposed to in our lives, whether that be the people around us throughout our lives or the stories we see in TV, in film and in the books we read. The more exposure you have to these other stories the more material your mind has to mix and shape into the stories you want to write. Don’t underestimate the benefit which comes with taking some time to refresh this mix. Inspiration can take you at any point. There are lots of authors out there whose inspiration came from TV, film, music, books or even the news. There is also a benefit to watching something you wouldn’t usually give the time of day. Even if you don’t overly enjoy it, you have exposed yourself to a different type of story. In Conclusion Writing is supposed to be fun, and it is supposed to be what we live for. Imposing arbitrary goals and deadlines can make the whole process a chore, and it can soon become something resented rather than enjoyed.
Anxiety is the enemy of good writing, and the world is already full of things that cause it. Do something which helps; have a bath, talk to a friend, watch funny cat videos on YouTube or even scroll through the @DogRates twitter account. And remember - don’t be the architect of your own anxiety. |
Craig BoldyBorn in South Yorkshire, he lives there with his wife and Labrador. Working a normal 9-5 while filling his nights with writing. Categories
All
Archives
November 2018
|